CITY LAUNCHES DRUG BATTLE PLAN FOR DOWNTOWN

In the last two weeks 10 youths were turned away from detox, and over the
past year the Victoria police drunk tank had 3,000 guests. But those
numbers should be going down.

The city, health officials and police launched a "downtown action plan"
Friday that will produce more youth detox spaces and an adult sobering and
assessment centre.

The plan, in reaction to the growing substance-abuse problems in downtown
Victoria, includes a police crackdown on drug dealers and more social
workers and health workers on the streets.

The initiative will be expensive, easily in the millions of dollars. Some
programs will be taken care by existing funding but partners in the plan
will have to search out other cash.

"We need to take back our streets and restore community pride," Mayor Alan
Lowe said during the announcement at City Hall.

"The city of Victoria is experiencing our share of urban problems. And it
will be more cost effective to tackle these problems now before they are
out of control."

He plans to meet with local MLAs. He has also had discussions with federal
ministers and plans to further pursue money from Ottawa.

Lowe is also convinced that it would benefit the city to be a part of the
Big City Mayors' conference and meetings.

Victoria is generally left out because it has only 72,000 residents though
its urban problems affect the whole capital region which is home to 325,000
people, he said.

"Victoria needs to be more aggressive and we need to be at the table with
the other big cities in Canada."

Partners in the plan include the Vancouver Island Health Authority and
Victoria police, but Lowe wants to get business, service providers and
community associations on board.

The plan has both short- and long-term goals. In the next six months the
action plans calls for:

- - Increases in police action to stopdrug dealing in the downtown core and
in the neighbourhoods

- - Expansion of youth detox services to full-time operation. The existing
facility has funding for only 17 days a month.

- - Greater used-needle pickup, using more volunteers.

- - Improvement with intake procedures at Royal Jubilee Hospital for
psychiatric emergencies.

- - Additional outreach workers.

The plan takes into consideration that 70 to 80 per cent of addicts are
also mentally ill and many are homeless as well.

"Combining these program enables us to target services to people with both
disorders in a more comprehensive way," said VIHA chief operating officer
Marilyn Rook. That, in turn, will reduce reliance on emergency and police
services and increase services for concurrent treatment, supportive
recovery, counselling and outreach, she added.

Both the sobering centre and expanded youth detox services could be going
by mid-to late spring. Putting more outreach workers on the streets has
already begun.

At least two coroner's juries the last couple of years have called for
facilities such as a sobering centre where street drunks can get a warm bed
instead of sleeping in an alleyway or the drunk tank.

These projects alone run over $1 million, and fresh funding likely will be
required, Rook said. As well, details such as locations still need to be
worked out.

Victoria police have already started to get more officers into trouble areas.

Chief Paul Battershill said his department has established a drug task
force of 20 members, which will be evaluated over the next few months and
may become permanent.

The task force will not only target downtown but the North Park, Fernwood
and Burnside-Gorge neighbourhoods, he said.

Studies indicate that as enforcement chases drug problems from one
neighbourhood to another, they begin to decrease, he said.

The amalgamation of Esquimalt and Victoria police provided more flexibility
so the task force can be added without taking away from regular police work
in either community, he said.

"We are prepared to make it very unpleasant for a drug trafficker in this
city," Battershill said.

Meanwhile, long-term plans call for continued capital planning for a new
psychiatric emergency building, a review of current mental health and
addiction services, an increase in affordable housing for the homeless and
establishment of an inner-city health coalition.

As well, the region is exploring whether to establish safe-injection sites
where addicts can go to shoot up in a clean, secure environment.

Victoria-Hillside MLA Sheila Orr said she was impressed with the plan and
would be talking to her Liberal government colleagues about whether more
funding is available. "They have a good plan here," she said.

Flower ship owner Denyce Burrows, who went public with her concerns about
drugs and prostitution at the Johnson Street parkade, said the plan goes
only so far.

Lawmakers need to change legislation so drug dealers and other petty
criminals aren't being given slaps on the wrist, she said. Too many are
quickly back out on the streets plying their trades after being arrested or
convicted, Burrows said.

"I really don't care about their rights. We are the people creating the
jobs, fuelling the jobs and we can't do our business with that."